XDA News Articles

Text messaging is one of the most popular ways to communicate currently. However, if you are a responsible adult and respect those around you, there are times where you can’t, or shouldn’t, spend a lot of time text messaging. What you need is a way to speed up common text entry. In this episode of XDA Xposed Tuesday, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews an Xposed Module that lets you set macros that will automatically type in what you set...

Surfing the web on an Android device perhaps isn’t the most smooth experience one can have, especially when compared with using a PC. Maybe the screen is not big enough or not that responsive, or the words displayed are too small. Or maybe the browser you’re using is at fault, which, on many occasions, it tends to be for many people. If you’re using Google Chrome, and feel that its UI is not quite optimal, XDA Forum Member JT5 has developed...

The HTC One Max is HTC’s answer to the incredibly successful Note series by Samsung. With top notch specs, a beautiful screen, and running Sense 6 (as of a couple of months ago), the One Max is a great device to have in your hand if phablets are your thing. If you happen to be an owner of the One Max and are looking to further customize its interface, in a big way or small way, you may want to...

Back in April, we talked about a useful Xposed Framework module by XDA Senior Member hamzahrmalik that allowed users to increase the number of allowed lock screen pattern attempts. This is incredibly useful for those who would like to use a particularly difficult to remember and enter lock screen pattern, as well as those who have the pattern set to not display entry attempts. In the time since, the previously covered module has been discontinued. Luckily, hamzahrmalik followed up on his previous creation with the...

Xposed Modules are usually pretty simple. There are a few out there where a Smali edit or a change in build.prop would produce the same result. However, sometimes you just don’t have the time or desire to dig through mountains of build.prop fields to find what you are looking for. But that’s alright, Xposed Module creators have found and shared their tweaks for us. In this episode of XDA Xposed Tuesday, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews an Xposed Module that lets...

One of the best things about the modern day smartphone is its ability to save us time here and there. Features like Google Now keep us apprised of all the relevant news and scores so that we don't have to manually search for the information ourselves. However, this isn't the only way in which our smart devices can save us time. Many of us often use our mobile devices to enter repetitive tidbits of information. XDA Forum Member mikmitch recently realized this, and developed...

Google presented their brand new UI for tablets alongside the release of Android 3.0 Honeycomb back in early 2011. It was widely used on many devices with Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean 4.1, at which point Google finally decided to end this project. The UI was replaced by the Phablet layout in Android 4.2. This Phablet UI is basically the phone layout stretched to match the tablet size. Google went even further and removed the Tablet UI from source code in Android 4.4, so it's very...

Most applications on Android play nicely with both landscape and portrait orientation. This, however, is unfortunately not the case for all applications, with games and older applications being the leading culprits. While many of these orientation locked apps truly do work best in their preferred orientation, there are many others that are fully capable of working well in the other orientation but are inexplicably rotation locked. XDA Senior Member defim was tired of this behavior, so he set out to change it...

If talking about the most interesting projects in the last few years, we must mention the powerful and versatile Xposed Framework. This tool is the foundation that allows us to implement hooks into existing code using the app_process binary. In short, Xposed helps us by letting us fix various bugs, add new features, and perform various other tasks on any rooted firmware with Xposed installed--without the need to dive into Smali modifications. The two developers standing behind this project, XDA Senior Recognized Developer rovo89...

If you've ever entered a password on your mobile device, you've surely noticed that password input fields normally hide the inputted characters by showing dots rather than the characters themselves. This is great to prevent casual snooping, but it also results in possible mistakes. Most of us also are well aware of how several consecutive mistakes may lead to account restrictions. So if you're not in a public area, why not spare yourself of the inconveniences with a handy Xposed Framework module. If you don't...

The greatest thing about technology is its ability to keep us connected. However, technology can also impact our sleep, from waking us with notification noise to keeping us watching videos. Well, CyanogenMod has a QuietHours setting that mute notifications automatically. But what if you don’t want to install CyanogenMod or CyanogenMod doesn’t support your device? In this episode of XDA Xposed Tuesday, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews an Xposed Module that lets you have quiet hours on almost any device....

Some quotes from movies are quite famous and end up being remembered for a long time. Sometimes they are long, sometimes short, but they are always catchy. If you ever watched Guardians of the Galaxy, you certainly know about what I'm talking about. I am Groot! Yes you are right, one of the best, extremely lovable wooden characters played ever by Vin Diesel says nothing but this quote. Groot can put down roots on your Android device. It's entirely possible, thanks...

Xposed Framework is one of the most interesting projects available for Android. Almost every ROM, no matter whether it's stock-based or not, can have extra features enabled or have existing features fixed. And the most interesting part of Xposed is that it works with almost every device, as well as most of the currently used Android versions. One feature that can easily work in some ROMs but is often disabled is call recording. The Android OS can easily use your...

Battery life is one of those things that still is a bit of an issue on modern Android devices. It's also the subject for many discussions that take place on the forums. Android itself is somewhat of a battery hog, and Google is trying to do its best by adding Battery Historian, a feature to track down wakelocks. There are also plenty of third party solutions like scripts that help or make the situation even worse. One device component that often reduces users' battery life...

The Quiet Hours feature available on certain OEM firmwares and custom ROMs is extremely useful for those who have trouble sleeping. If you have friends spread all over the world, they may (and often do) try to contact you in the middle of the night. Quiet Hours prevents that, and makes your sleep time more efficient. This feature stops your device from playing any sound at preselected hours, primarily for use at night. While most ROMs available on XDA have Quiet Hours functionality built-in, Paranoid Android...

Many applications available here on XDA that aren't available on the Google Play Store. There are usually a few reasons for their absence: Developer accounts cost money, they are too “hacky” to be acceptable on the Play Store, or simply developers don't want to release their work in the biggest app store for Android. You can find plenty such applications in the various forums we have here. Unlike some other operating systems, Android allows its users to install applications directly from internal...

The greatest thing about technology is its ability to teach and promote personal growth. No one knows this to be truer than the technology enthusiasts who have procreated and have a little mini-them running around. However, sometimes this little spawn gets ahold of your phone, whether intentionally or unintentionally, and they sometimes make changes they should. In this episode of XDA Xposed Tuesday, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews an Xposed Module that lets you create a kids mode on...

One of Android L's most interesting features is its way of handling notifications, choosing to show a hovering dialog containing them, which you can interact with or swipe away. This allows you to view and interact with notifications without needing to pull down your notification shade and subsequently break your workflow. However, the source code for this was found in Android 4.4 KitKat and a similar feature was developed by the ParanoidAndroid team and baked into their ROMs. However, ParanoidAndroid's Hover feature,...

Here on XDA Developer TV, we talk about helpful Xposed Modules on our weekly show, XDA Xposed Tuesday. We’ve covered some modules that have everything and the kitchen sink, and those are great, but sometimes the simplest module catches our attention because it solves a singular major annoyance. In this episode of XDA Xposed Tuesday, XDA Developer TV Producer TK reviews an Xposed Module that lets you change the starting screen in the YouTube application. XDA Recognized Developer GermainZ created...

You may recall that earlier this year, we covered a simple Smai modification by XDA Recognized Themer and Contributor iamareebjamal that allowed users to change their battery stats color with a simple Smali modification. Such a modification isn't exactly groundbreaking, as it just changes the way a certain (though often used) Settings page looks. However, as Google and OEMs place an increasing emphasis on UI styling, customizing a page's look is more valuable than ever. Let's say that you wanted to go ahead...

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